Sign of hope for rapid transit

CDTA riders will soon be seeing red at bus stops along Route 5 between Schenectady and Albany.

The red will be coupled with silver on the distinctive signs the CDTA board approved last week to designate stops on the long-awaited Bus Rapid Transit service.

Actual BRT service still won’t be on the streets until 2010, CDTA officials said.

Work to upgrade traffic signals and make other improvements necessary for BRT — a type of transit that provides more express buses and rail-like station stops — has been going on for years. But progress has been slowed by the complexity of coordination among agencies and the costs.

Now, CDTA officials have decided that, even if the service isn’t ready to roll, the signs can be.

“We have got to create some visibility here,” said Carm Basile, director of business development. “We keep saying ‘It’s coming. It’s coming. It’s coming,’ but people don’t see anything.”

With some of the new signs in place, “at the very least, people will say ‘Oh, that’s where a new BRT station will be.’”